This is typically the number one question mortgage professionals are asked by new clients.

Of critical importance when considering mortgage financing: There is sometimes a difference between what a client ***can*** borrow and what they ***should*** borrow.

In other words, what makes for a comfortable long-term mortgage payment?

The Quick Answer:

If we’re simply considering the financial math, lenders will calculate your Debt-to-Income Ratio and generally allow for 28-31% of your gross income to be used for the new house payment with up to 43% of your gross income to be used for all consumer related debts combined.

Simple step: We use a safe average of $7 per month in payment for every $1000 in purchase price so…

Step 1) $900 a month divided by $7 = $128.50

Step 2) $128.50 multiplied by 1000 = $128,500 loan amount.

Remember, these are average ratios and guidelines set by most lenders for common mortgage programs.

Keep in mind, while most consumer debts are listed on a credit report, there are some additional monthly liabilities that may contribute to the overall qualifying percentages as well.

Regardless of how your personal income and credit scenarios factor in, it is important to consider your overall budget when trying to determine how much of a mortgage you should qualify for.

Other items to consider in your monthly budget:

1. Confirm all debts are taken into account
2. Any private notes or family loans
3. Short-term expenses – medical, auto repairs, travel, emergencies
4. Plan on additional expenses for the home such as water, electric, maintenance, etc…
5. Keep a cushion for savings and financial planning

Onslow County is America’s fastest-growing county over the past five years, according to a federal agency that tracks economics.

Total personal income in Onslow climbed 55.5 percent, from $5.3 billion in 2006 to $8.3 billion in 2011, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Total personal income is defined as the amount of money earned by all residents of a given area in a particular year.

Douglas County, Colo., a Denver suburb, ranked No. 2. Rounding out the top five were Loudoun County, Va.; Paulding County, Ga.; Fort Bend County, Texas; and Pinal County, Ariz.

Wayne County, Mich., home to Detroit, is last on the list.

Onslow’s booming economy is fueled by Marines and sailors stationed at Camp Lejeune and New River Air Station, according to a recent report in the Charlotte Business Journal.

But that’s just a third of the story, said Shelia Pierce, director of Jacksonville-Onslow Economic Development.

“Our economy is powered by the U.S. Marine Corps, of course, but Onslow County also has a wide agricultural base and its tourism, which is beginning to be recognized at the national level, is a major component as well,” she said.

The military, agriculture and tourism are the top three economic areas for North Carolina, which bodes well that they are also the top for Onslow County, she said.

“Our local economy will stay secure for some time,” Pierce said, adding that now is the time to invest in infrastructure.

Onslow County Manager Jeff Hudson said growth in the county has been pronounced in the past few years.

“Information from our tax office and our building inspections offices verify that fact,” he said.

Onslow County’s total estimated tax base is $13.2 billion, said Harry Smith, the county tax administrator.

Hudson said an increasing county population has begun to strain the services provided by local government. But he said the county is committed to providing services to the expanding population as efficiently as possible.

“Onslow remains committed to high quality local government,” he said.

Contact Daily News Senior Reporter Lindell Kay at 910-219-8455 or lindell.kay@jdnews.com. Follow him on Twitter and friend him on Facebook @ 1lindell.

Homeowners attempting to sell their home without the assistance of a real estate professional generally do so for one and one reason only: to avoid paying a commission fee. Is it worth it? Only the homeowner can answer that, but experience has shown that many for-sale-by-owners find that it’s not. Before making a costly mistake, consider the benefits, from A-Z, you receive from working with a trained real estate professional:

Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) is insurance payable to a lender or trustee for a pool of securities that may be required when taking out a mortgage loan.

It is insurance to offset losses in the case where a mortgagor is not able to repay the loan and the lender is not able to recover its costs after foreclosure and sale of the mortgaged property.

PMI isn’t necessarily a bad thing since it allows borrowers to purchase a property by qualifying for conventional financing with a lower down payment.

Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) simply protects your lender against non-payment should you default on your loan. It’s important to understand that the primary and only real purpose for mortgage insurance is to protect your lender—not you. As the buyer of this coverage, you’re paying the premiums so that your lender is protected. PMI is often required by lenders due to the higher level of default risk that’s associated with low down payment loans. Consequently, its sole and only benefit to you is a lower down payment mortgage

Private Mortgage Insurance and Mortgage Protection Insurance

Private mortgage insurance and mortgage protection insurance are often confused.

Though they sound similar, they’re two totally different types of insurance products that should never be construed as substitutes for each other.

Mortgage protection insurance is essentially a life insurance policy designed to pay off your mortgage in the event of your death.

Private mortgage insurance protects your lender, allowing you to finance a home with a smaller down-payment.

Automatic Termination

Thanks to The Homeowner’s Protection Act (HPA) of 1998, borrowers have the right to request private mortgage insurance cancellation when they reach a 20 percent equity in their mortgage. What’s more, lenders are required to automatically cancel PMI coverage when a 78 percent Loan-to-Value is reached.

Some exceptions to these provisions, such as liens on property or not keeping up with payments, may require further PMI coverage.

Also, in many instances your PMI premium is often tax deductible in a similar fashion as the interest paid each year on your mortgage is tax deductible. Please, check with a tax expert to learn your tax options.

By committing to a mortgage loan, the borrower is entering into a financial agreement with a lender to pay back the mortgage money, with interest, over a set period of time.

The borrower’s monthly mortgage payment may change over time depending on the type of loan program, however, we’re going to address the typical 30 year fixed Principal and Interest loan program for the sake of breaking down the individual payment components for this particular article about an amortization schedule.

On each payment that is made, a certain amount of interest is taken out to pay the lender back for the opportunity to borrow the money, and the remaining balance is applied to the principal balance.

It’s common to hear industry professionals and homeowners talk about a mortgage payment being front-loaded with interest, especially if they’re referencing an amortization chart to show the numbers. Since there is more interest being paid at the beginning of a mortgage payment term the amount of money applied to interest decreases over time, while the money applied to the principal increases.

We can better understand mortgage payments by looking at a loan amortization chart, which shows the specific payments associated with a loan.

The details will include the interest and principal component of each periodic payment.

For example, let’s look at a scenario where you borrowed a $100,000 loan at 7.5% interest rate, fixed for 30 year term. To ensure full repayment of principal by the end of the 30 years, your payment would need to be $699.21 per month. In the first month, you owe $100,000, which means the interest would be calculated on the full loan amount. To calculate this, we start with $100,000 and multiply it by 7.5% interest rate. This will give you $7,500 of annual interest. However, we only need a monthly amount. So we divide by 12 months to find that the interest equals $625. Now remember, you are paying $699.21. If you only owe interest of $625, then the remainder of the payment, $74.21, will go towards the principal. Thus, your new outstanding balance is now $99,925.79.

In month #2, you make the same payment of $699.21. However, this time, you now owe $99,925.79. Therefore, you will only pay interest on $99,925.79. When running through the calculator in the same process detailed above, you will find that your interest component is $624.54. (It is decreasing!) The remaining $74.68 will be applied towards principal. (This amount is increasing!)

Each month, the same simple mathematic calculation will be made. Because the payments are remaining the same, each month the interest will continue to be reduced and the remainder going towards principal will continue to increase.

An amortization chart runs chronologically through your series of payments until you get to the final payment. The chart can also be a useful tool to determine interest paid to date, principal paid to date, or remaining principal.

Another frequent use of amortization charts is to determine how extra payments toward principal can affect and accelerate the month of final payment of the loan, as well as reduce your total interest payments.

Calculating an exact mortgage payment without a calculator on a loan is no small task, but there are some simple rules-of-thumb you can use to get a close estimate.

With the exception of the MIT Blackjack Team, performing this type of complex math in your head often leads to frustrating rants.

When coming up with a rough estimate, it is important to understand the individual components that factor into the overall monthly mortgage payment.

Yes, the thousands of dollars you send to your lender every year may cover more than just the mortgage, but referring to one simple formula will help you gauge what the new payment will be as you’re out looking for new properties that may be in your price range.

What’s In A Mortgage Payment?

A mortgage consists of 4-6 parts:

Principal – the balance of the loan

Interest – the fee paid to borrow the mortgage money

Property Taxes – based on county assessed value and residence type

Hazard Insurance – in the case of fire or property damage (may include a separate flood policy)

Most lenders use the acronym (PITI), which includes Principal, Interest, Taxes and Insurance.

And in the case where a separate Mortgage Insurance Premium is required, we add another “I” to the end of that creative series of letters.

Another monthly expense that you have to consider is the monthly dues that come with properties that have a homeowner’s association (common in condominiums and other developments). This isn’t a payment made to your lender, but you will have to qualify with that payment and it is also best practice for you to factor that in the monthly cost of your new home.

Confused yet? Don’t worry, this is slightly easier than most state bar exams.

The Mortgage Payment Cheat Sheet:

Ok, you’ve made it this far and haven’t closed your browser, so that is a good thing.

Please keep in mind, this top secret formula will by no means be exact.

Mortgage Payment Formula:

For every $1000 you borrower, your TOTAL monthly mortgage payment will be $8.

So, if you purchase a home for $250,000 with a $50,000 down payment – borrowing a total of $200,000, then a good estimated total monthly PITI payment would be roughly $1600.

But don’t forget to add your homeowners association dues to that monthly payment.

What If I Pay Taxes and Insurance Separately?

Well now we’re at the easy part. If you elect to pay taxes separate from your mortgage, the cheat sheet is reduced from $8 per $1000 down to $6 per $1000.

So there you have it. $8 for every $1000 borrowed.

Again, please keep in mind that this is not going to give you an EXACT payment. You may be purchasing a property with higher real estate taxes or your insurance premiums may be higher than average depending on the state you live in.

When mortgage lenders go out of business and are essentially taken over by the FDIC, homeowners are left wondering if they still need to make a monthly payment.

Great thought, and a very common question for many borrowers in the 2006-2010 timeframe.

The short answer is YES, you still have to continue making mortgage payments if your current lender files for bankruptcy or disappears over the weekend.

In order to give a more thorough answer to this popular topic, we’ll need to address the relationship between mortgage loans as liens and mortgage servicers who make money by handling payments.

To put this topic in perspective, 381 banks actually filed bankruptcy between 2006 and 2010 forcing them to cease their mortgage lending activities. And a common misconception borrowers have about their mortgage company is that their agreement should become obsolete once the lender files for bankruptcy or goes out of business.

Based on the way mortgage money is made, packaged and sold on the secondary market as a mortgage backed security, the promissory note (agreement) is actually spread between many investors who rely on a servicing company to collect and manage the monthly payments.

A mortgage is considered a secured asset, where the collateral is real estate. And, the mortgage note has a separate value to investors and servicers based on the interest and servicing fees they have wrapped up in the monthly payments.

This is why many mortgage notes get sold to other servicers who pay for the rights to service your loan. So basically, even if a mortgage company is bankrupt, someone else is willing to take on the job of collecting payments.

Also, by signing a mortgage note, the borrower is committing to continue making the required payments, regardless of what happens to the mortgage company servicing your loan.

Bullets:

Your house is an asset

The mortgage note has a separate value to investors

Regardless what happens to your mortgage company, you need to make your payments

Also, it’s important to continue making your mortgage payments on time, regardless of which servicing company is sending a monthly statement. Obviously, keep a good paper trail of those mortgage payments in case there is a mix-up between transitions.

When shopping for a hazard insurance policy, something called “bundling” can actually save you quite a bit of money that most people aren’t aware of.

Many of the big insurance companies price their insurance rates to attract a particular segment of the market. They usually price their hazard insurance policies to attract homeowners who need to insure not only their homes with hazard insurance, but also their cars with car insurance and lives with life insurance.

The big insurance companies want customers who will stay with them for years vs shopping around for a better deal every six months. So, to give customers an incentive to stick with them, they offer discounts if you use the company for all three (hazard, auto, life) lines of insurance.

Companies offer “multiline discounts” to attract customers who will need more than one type of insurance. These companies offer a cheaper rate to insure both your house and car than if you insured each one separately at different companies.

The same goes if you add a second car or a life insurance policy – the discounts keep adding up.

…..

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q. How much can you actually save when you combine insurance policies with one company?

It varies by company, but with some of the large insurance companies, it will save you up to 40%.

Q. Why are the large companies sometime so far off when it comes to price on my hazard insurance?

Large companies often give significant discounts if you have your hazard, auto and life insurance with them – and they actually *want* to be higher in price if you only have one line. People with only one line of insurance switch more often according to the statistics.

Many borrowers believe that when they purchase a property by obtaining mortgage financing, they also own their home.

Technically speaking, full ownership on a property only happens once the mortgage loan amount has been paid in full.

To break this down in more detail, there are a few components of a mortgage:

A Promissory Note is a document signed by the borrower acknowledging their commitment to pay the mortgage back with interest in a specific period of time.

In addition to the terms of repayment, the Note also contains provisions concerning the rights of both parties involved in the agreement.

In some states, a Deed of Trust is used instead of a Mortgage Note. The main difference is that on a Deed of Trust there is a Trustee, which the legal title is vested to in order to secure the repayment of the loan.

There are three parties involved with a Deed of Trust:

1) Trustor – This is the borrower

2) Trustee – This is the entity that holds “bare or legal” title, and is usually the title company which holds the Power of Sale in the event of default and reconveys the property once the Deed of Trust is paid in full.

3) Beneficiary – This is the lender that is getting repaid

Deeds of Trust are easier for lenders to foreclose on than a mortgage because there is no need for a judicial proceeding.

Mortgages on the other hand, have to go through judicial proceedings, which can be expensive and time consuming.

In summary, until you have your promissory note paid in full, you are not the only one with an ownership interest in your property.